All-rounder Closes Long Innings

Sun Herald

Sunday December 5, 2004

CRICKET

BILL Alley was an Australian cricketer with a formidable record in the Lancashire League when, in 1957 and already 38, he signed a contract to play for Somerset.

The county must have hoped to get perhaps five years' service from him. In the event, Alley would be a mainstay of the Somerset side for 12 seasons, performing extraordinary feats with bat and ball, and pulling in the crowds with his rumbustious, aggressive style.

A left-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-fast bowler, Alley's best seasons were 1961 and 1962. In 1961 he scored 3019 runs (he remains the last person to score more than 3000 runs in an English summer) and took 62 wickets.

He made 11 centuries in 1961, and was particularly pleased that two of them, and another innings of 95, came off the touring Australians.

In 1962 Alley scored 1915 runs and took 112 wickets.

The combination of his hard-hitting batting and thrifty bowling also made him a useful player in the new one-day game. In 1967 he helped guide Somerset to the final of the Gillette Cup, though they lost to Kent at Lord's.

Alley was born on February 3, 1919 in his grandmother's house at Hornsby. He started his cricket career playing for Northern District but in 1942-43 moved to Petersham. In one match he hit 230 and then took 6-52.

By 1945-46 Alley was playing for NSW. In November 1946 he was in the NSW side that played against MCC and scored 43 not out in characteristically inelegant style.

In 1948 he set off to try his fortune playing for Colne in the Lancashire League. In his first season he scored 1151 runs and took 86 wickets and in 1949 he made even more runs, in the process becoming the first League player to top the 1000 mark in successive seasons.

His reputation had won him a place in the Commonwealth side that toured India in 1949-50.

Only Frank Worrell scored more runs on the tour than Alley, who hit two double centuries and finished with an average of 66.05.

He played in all five unofficial Tests, averaging 40.85.

Between 1957 and 1968 Alley played in 349 first-class matches in England, scoring 17,258 runs at an average of 30.65, and taking 756 wickets at 22.03 each.

From 1969 to 1984 he served as a first-class umpire. Between 1974 and 1981 he umpired in 10 Tests.

Alley died in hospital on November 26 aged 85.

© 2004 Sun Herald

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